Actual Festival

I finished my job. As all the animations had to be uploaded to the school website previously, I found them all in the same folder in the reference drive, and opened it on 3 different computers in the library. There were 8 films so I decided to put 3 on a loop on 2 computers and then put the final 2 on a loop on a different computer. However, 4 of them were a different format that would not play on the player I was using. I tried to use a different player but it ran really slowly and jerkily. So, I went to the technician and he tried to convert the files to a format that would play, but it wouldn't work, so he put them all on the same video. I made the same complete film run looping on each of the computers.

Later though, it was decided these computers would be used for the documentaries, and the corridor next to the library would be used for displaying the animations (with a sign made to indicate this.) Originally it was intended that there would be one animation per each computer, but we couldn't complete this obviously and I put the film just looping on each of the computers, with headphones connected. They were running really slowly and it took ages, but eventually it was alright.

The festival was quite a success, with quite a few visitors. It reached a budget of £130 which paid for double sided sticky tape, sheets of card and biscuits and drinks.
Here are some pictures of the festival on the second day:

6.4 Venue and when we're setting it up

This was our fourth and (hopefully) final meeting as a group before the actual festival had to be set up.

We had a few different ideas for where the festival could be, either in the arts theatre, the library or the sixth form study area. We cancelled the arts theatre out because although there's a massive screen to watch the films on, there's only one (no computers) so all the films and documentaries and animations would have to be on the same loop, which would take ages to run through.

We cancelled out the sixth form study area as well, because it's around the time of the exams now and there's a few exams in there.

So the festival's going to be in the library, where there's a screen and computers around it, and where the "book area" is at the back, there's tables we can put stuff on and put the display boards around the edges of the room.

As it's gonna be on 10 til 2 on the 19th morning, we need to meet on the 18th at 3 and spend the time setting it up then. Then the library has to be used, so we'll have to set it up again on the 20th, in which we'll meet at 12:30 to set it up for 5.

6.3 Invitation, posters, presentation to assembly

People who didn't have jobs to do already started to work on invitations in a group. We also decided to do a presentation to our year's school assembly telling them everything about the festival in hope that they go to it, so two people started to work on that as well.
We all had to do a poster for the festival each.
I wanted to take the idea of bringing the viewer of the poster into the artwork and the process of creating it, much like the visitor will be able to see the the artwork and the process of creating it all around them at the festival. I used photoshop as a background and put funky text over it to achieve this effect.
Here is the poster in the process of making it.



However, I didn't want to leave it here because it looked too simple, not interesting enough. Therefore, I added some bits of pictures of diploma work that I found, some of them popping out of the photoshop document onto the desktop - this gives an idea of what might be included if one were to visit the festival and helps persuade them to go to it.

It was awkward to read having the writing facing two different directions, so I took them off to reput them in in a better fashion. I also added more pictures, after lots of searching the reference drive for things to include and cutting them out of the original photos they were in using photoshop.

To finish, I put the original text back in, but in different places that would read and look better, and as I couldn't find any other pictures of diploma work from a unit that I'd not already displayed, I put a filmreel in the place where I might put them instead, which looks good.

I moved the title text up so it was easier to read too, as advised to.

The finished poster is below:

6.3 Audience

For our third meeting we decided on the audience we'd expect to come to the festival and who we'd invite.

As it will be on at 10-2 (in school time), younger audiences from school can come to the festival, looking at what the diploma will be like if they are considering it, and slightly older audiences from school can look at their classmates work.

Audiences from other schools can even come at this time - Turton is near Eagley Junior School and the children from there can come to look at the work for a period of time.

In the evening, the audience will be mainly family, and some friends - parents etc. who have been invited to come and look at their kids' work.

Obviously the work in the festival will be suited to both age groups and they can both take something from it; the younger age groups will be interested to learn about their possible future GCSE work and the parents would be interested to learn about what their children are doing.

6.2 Schedule

We're going to hold the festival over 2 days, the 19th and 20th of May. It will be open at 10 til 2 on the 19th and 5 til 7 on the 20th.

The Record films will be on a constant loop all the time on the projector screen, and the documentaries and animations will be one per computer and constantly looping each one. Display boards will display work around the room, and there will also be work on the tables as well as the props and artefacts.

We have asked the school PTA, Parents and Teachers Association, and they will help provide us with 'refreshments' for the festival - this could be biscuits, chocolate, sausage rolls, sausages, even samosas and cold drinks and wine.

6.2 Who's accountable for what

We compiled a list of jobs that needed to be done and applied different people to them. The one in bold is what I have to do.

-Get all the Record films to put on a loop, on a DVD.

-Collect all the costumes from Performance and put them on the manakins.

-Collect all the props from Record.

-Collect all the sets and models from Campaign.

-Collect all the animations from Campaign and either put them on a loop or play them separately on different computers.

-Collect all the artefacts from Artefact.

-Collect all the documentaries from Artefact, possibly also on a DVD.

-Collect as many sketchbooks/blog addresses as possible from throughout all the units.

My job consists of collecting the animations from each of the groups who made them, and putting them on a pendrive or the Reference Drive, and then figuring out how I'm going to play them in the room that we have.

6.2 Sources and uses of displaying the media and art

-All the films from Record can be played on a projector screen (we'd have to find a suitable room.)

-The computers can have other films playing on them - the animations and the documentaries (again we'd have to find a suitable room.)

-Headphones, to plug into each of the computers so people can watch what's on them without it clashing with the films playing on the projector.

-A small no. of display boards can be acquired from around school and put up in the room we choose, to display drawings, written work and research as well as the banners.

-More paper, card and sketchbooks can be laid out on tables if there is no more space on the display boards

-Manakins from around school as well, to display the characters' costumes.

6.2 Products and performances suitable

As a group we had a second meeting in which we discussed what we would display in the festival and how it would be organised. We will display as much as we can that we have produced already for the diploma, as well as some of the process sheets we have done and our blogs, to show how much work it was to produce our finished work.

This includes

- The films from the Record unit

- The costumes from the Performance unit (all our parents' and other likely guests have already viewed the actual Performance at an earlier date)

- Props from the films in Record

- The finished artefacts from Artefact

- The documentaries from Artefact

- The finished banners from Scene

- A sample range of planning and research, sketchbooks and blogs

- Animation sets/figures from Campaign

- The finished animations from Campaign

6.1 Artistic Policy

For festivals like Glastonbury the artistic policy would be to feature the best in contemporary culture in music and performing arts, and it would be aimed at young people. As well as attracting people to it by featuring popular artists, it also attempts to promote new artists through smaller stages, as do lots of popular music or arts festivals. The festival would be promoted a lot through advertising and through the artists featured in it (for their benefit and for the festivals,) which makes it even more popular and then next time even more popular artists would be featured, which again makes it more popular.

Festivals like the Kumbh Mela are obviously very important to its attendants and they are done a lot for tradition, their policy is to promote the ideas in the pilgrimage and bring a lot of Hindu community together for group "activities," - also they believe it is out of respect for the Gods they worship.
Other festivals like Preston Guild also run the festival because it is tradition, but they also want to attract more people and get more people involved each time like in big music and arts festivals like Glastonbury and in small community festivals like Bolton Big Weekend. It also benefits the community to do something like this because it brings the community together and attracts more people to the city.
La Biennale di Venezia showcases international work and promotes artistic trends and international events.
The Cannes Film Festival is directed just at "film professionals," but its purpose is to draw attention to and raise the profile of films, boosting the film industry and celebrating cinema internationally.

Our artistic policy is to showcase 2 years worth of art and media from our festival unit as a celebration. It will contain lots of different mediums including 3d sculpture, 2d boards, and different videos.

6.1 Funding for festivals

List of different types of funding for festivals:

Self-generating, e.g. Glastonbury - The event funding comes from the people who pay to go to it and from the adverts that people pay to show throughout the festival.

Government funding - The money for the festival comes entirely from the government.

Council funding e.g. Preston Guild - The town or city Council fund the whole thing; the project will probably benefit their city in the future adding to the attractiveness or bringing the community closer.

The funding for our festival is closest to Council Funding because it will be funded mainly by the PTA and the people running it.

6.1. Different types of media festivals and their target audience

As a group we discussed different types of media festivals and came up with a list comprised of different types of festivals.

Preston Guild
History celebration, dates back to 1179.
Every 20 years, evolves a lot each time.
'Plays an important role in the developing of Preston as a thriving and important Lancashire city.'
Everybody in the city gets involved as well as obviously lots of visitors who visit especially - residents, artists, businesses, athletes, performancers.
The focus is the people, it's important to a lot of them.
King Henry II gave Preston the right to have a Guild Merchant in 1179 - survived through it's celebrations and processions: colourful costumes, banners, emblems of each trade. Became increasingly popular, the church began processions.
More and more events, crowds - circuses, fairs, travelling comedians, exhibitions.
Balloon ascents began, banquets, costume balls.
Easy for people to arrange their own events and take part in a procession.
Only guild still celebrated in the UK today.
Preston City Council very dedicated to it and 'other public sector organisations.'
Directed at everybody - there is something for everyone and the whole city takes part.

Glastonbury
Largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world.
Tries to incorporate as many festival elements into it as it can.
Distinct 'socio-geographic' regions - e.g. Pyramid, the Dance stages, Jazzworld, Acoustic areas, Kidz field, Theatre and Circus fields, Field of Avalon, Tipi Field, Green Fields.
Sacred Space - a stone circle.
Location - 900 acres in the Vale of Avalon, site with a lot of symbolism based there.
Mellow, friendly atmosphere - so many different types of people go there.
'Strange things' happen, some planned, some spontaneous and crazy.
The website advises people not to come with a plan of what to see, but to also be spontaneous and just 'go with the flow.'
The website's 'last instruction' is to 'forget all instructions' which shows the spirit of the festival - directed at young people - although there is a lot of variety in the areas, - quite wild.

Kumbh Mela
'The world's most massive act of faith,' the greatest spiritual festival in the world.
Millions of hindus, rich and poor, gather at the Ganges River to go on a massive pilgrimage every 3 years. The Purma (complete) Kumbh takes place every 12 years at 4 different places and the Maha (great) Kumbh Mela comes after 144 years at Allahabad.
In 2007, more than 70 million pilgrims gathered for the pilgrimage.
The major event of the festival is the ritual bathing at the banks of the river at the town it's being held. Other activities include: religious discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardized.
Celebrated at different locations depending on position of Jupiter and the Sun.
Kumbha is the a zodiac sign in Indian astrology for Aquarius, the sign the festival is celebrated under.
First evidence is 629-645 CE, accounts of the Chinese traveler Huan Tsang.
The account is that a battle ensued between the Gods and demons for the pot of Amrita, and during the battle, Lord Vishnu flew away with the Kumbha of elixir spilling drops of Amrita in four places, Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik.
Obviously this festival is directed at Hindus and is very important to them.

Bolton Big Weekend
The (small) towns biggest event of recent years, at Leverhulme Park.
Organised by Henry Hill of Northwest Funfairs.
Supported a lot by the people of Bolton.
Trying to incorporate in the different areas of the place idea - part of the park transformed into a 'beach,' there are bungee jumps, quad bike races, tank rides, a modern and vintage car show, a motorbike stunt display team, morris dancers and a dog show.
Renowned boxing champion Amir Khan opened the event last year, and two stars of the ITV Soap, Emmerdale, also attended.
Had 4,500 attendants.
Aimed at residents of Bolton and the nearby areas, trying to get the community together and have fun.

Biennale di Venezia
Biennale - Italian for "every other year." Usually used to describe an international contemporary art festival, one of the most famous of which is the Venice Biennale.
Foundation in 1895, it promotes new artistic trends and organises internation contemporary arts events.
Now has an attendance of over 370,000.
In the 1930's, gained 3 more festivals within it - Music, Cinema and Theatre - and in 1980 the first Architecture Exhibition, and in 1999 an exhibtion of Dance began there.
The art biennale is for press and professionals only, this year the show being ILLUMInations and featuring 83 artists from round the world.
23% of visitors to the last Architecture exhibition were students.
Films can be submitted to the Film festival a long as they fit to regulations.
The Music Biennale features a series of workshops for Italian composers.
The Theatre one also features workshops, as well as conferences, meetings and panels.

Cannes film festival
The "Festival de Cannes" draws attention to and raises the profile of films, The Official Selection choosing the films to display there. This is split into two main ones, the Competition and the Un Certain Regard, the first focusing on "arthouse cinema with a wide audience appeal," the latter focusing on works that have "an original aim and aesthetic."
It also tries to bring back to life films that are important to the history of cinema and visitors can attend lessons, tributes, exhibitons etc.
There's a separate section within the Competition for short films.
The Camera d'Or is awarded to the "best film presented either in the Official Selection, during Directors' Fortnight or during the Samaine de la Critique.
The films selected come from around the world and the website can be viewed in 8 languages.
The Marche du Film is part of it, with 34 screening rooms and about 10,000 participants came to the most recent, focuses on promoting the cultural and economic nature of cinema. It states itself an oppurtunity for bringing together the entire industry, the ideal setting to develop projects, promote co-productions and find financial partners.
The festival is for film professionals only, but the opening film for the festival was released in French cinemas on the same day as released there, and the Cinema de la Plage is an outdoor cinema screening a different film every night.